Investment Q&A

Q: It was noted in the recent quarterly release that Constellation has "lowered the hurdle rate for deals of $100m or more". Does this mean that the company will accept/expect lower rates of return on these larger deals? If so, will this not reduce the profitability of those deals and finally, does this imply that CSU has indeed started to "hit the wall" in terms of growth? I hope I am wrong as this has been (thanks to 5i) one of my best investments!

Appreciate your insight.

Paul F.

Q: If you already had a 3.5% weighting in OTEX and none in CSU, now that earnings have come out, would you add to OTEX up to 6% weighting or start a CSU position instead?...& please explain your preference and if quarterly results hadn’t just come out would you have made a different choice.
Please consider that I am looking to hold for 5 or more years.

Q: I need to reduce my tech holdings, especially over the top with SHOP, but not complaining. Would you please give me your best momentum stocks, Canadian or US in any sector other than tech? I can tolerate some risk. Many thanks.

Q: Please comment on the earning release of these companies.
Thanks

Q: Is there any clear explanation to Constellation Software's miss on their Q1 eps number?

Thanks

John

Q: Top 4 stocks for my 18 year old son just starting to invest with a long time horizon
Thanks Terry

Q: Your thoughts on CSU? It's the largest holding in the Balanced mandate, is expectation to trim at these levels? What's your outlook?
Thank you

Q: Could I please have your earnings expectations for Constellation Software. Thanks

Q: Hi guys, thanks for the excellent service and continued improvements. I find the new Portfolio Analytics section very helpful. Long winded question here so please deduct as many credits as you see fit.

I am overweight in tech, at 40% overall. I have 40% tech in both my RRSP and TFSA.

The biggest names I have are AAPL 9%, TEAM 6%, and NVDA 6%. All of those are held in the US side of my RRSP.

I have a mix of 15 stocks in my TFSA, roughly equal weighting. The tech holdings in there are PHO, KXS, CSU, SYZ, SHOP. Each comprises about 6% of the TFSA but just over 1% of overall holdings.

I am 7-8% underweight in:
consumer defensive,
communication services,
industrials,
utilities.

I feel I should trim back or sell at least one of AAPL, TEAM or NVDA but hard to given they have all been growing and have potential to grow further. Are there any obvious choices to cut or pull back here? Can you please suggest at least one name from each of the following sectors:
consumer defensive,
communication services,
industrials,
utilities.

thanks !
Mark

Q: Hi,
Looking to decrease the number of holdings in the above listed stocks. Which 2 would you sell?
Thank you,
Brent

Q: Regarding the technology sector in Canada, how many stocks would you suggest and in what percentage of each for a 10 - 15% allocation for growth with no or low dividend? Which stocks would you recommend?
Thanks for your service

Q: I own several Canadian stocks in my TFSA that pay dividends in USD. Are the dividends eligible for the Canadian dividend tax credit?

Q: I was wondering if you could recommend some stocks that trade on the tsx that pay dividends in US money. I believe pif does, could you name some others.

Q: In talking to RBC Direct Investing regarding receiving the dividends in USD, I was told it is as easy as moving my 20 shares from my CDN holdings over to US, couple minutes on the phone and all done. All good except my converted shares are now CNSWF trading on the OTC Pink Exchange where daily average volume is 780 shares, any cause for concern here do you think?

Q: Out of the techs mentioned above, which would you sell first to free up some cash in case of a downturn.

Q: Gentlemen Good Morning,
Brokers are lying on dividends paid in US$
I phoned to Computershare the 'Agent' to ask about the dividends from CSU.
From CSU web site : Computershare is the agent of CSU, the dividends are paid in US$
16-03-2019 05-04-2019 USD $21.00 Third Party Cheque, Cheque Y COMMON

Q: Gentlemen Good Morning
Your answer today about dividends in US$
"Holding US-dollar dividend companies inside a US account saves this fee, and we would prefer to see them held in a US dollar account"
Not always thru unfortunately.
At NBDB, if you have CSU, FNV, OTEX, NTR in US account the fees fx/x conversion are double, because NBDB said it receive dividends in Ca$ from their agent (or custodian). I will complain to the Ombudsman.
At Scotia-ITrade they said the dividends are in Canadian by default because its a Canadian corporation, but they deny that dividends are payed in US$. The agents don't understand (or not competent)
At BMO said they dividends as paid in US$ if the stock is in US account, I feel some uncertainty on this answer but maybe true
VB said "This will only happen for two reasons at Virtual Brokers. First, if you do not have an U.S. side open in your account. Second, if the company trades on Canadian exchanges and pays the dividends in U.S. dollars we convert it to Canadian". Its clear. The G&M gives to VB best discount broker.
Best Regards.

Q: I just read Phil Town's "Rule #1" where he argues, amongst other things that return on equity (aka book value), sales growth, EPS growth, Cash flow and ROIC are the strongest indicators for long term growth. He argues that, ideally we'd invest in companies that have at least 10% growth in each category for each of the past 10 years - a lofty goal to be sure.

Generally, how do you feel about the aforementioned metrics to assess the quality of an invesment. Would you keep them in the same order of priority and would you add any to the mix?

For the record, the only stock I can find that comes close to meeting the 10% increase per year threshold is CSU so maybe there's something to it!

Cam.

Q: I hold the following technology companies for a 31.66% weighting in my portfolio. I need to reduce this to a maximum weighting of 20%. Given the holdings are long term, and I wish a balance between stability and aggressive growth in this sector, which of the above companies would you cut down or eliminate to achieve this goal? Current individual weights are; CSU 4.88%, GOOGL 4.94%, AAPL 4.8%,GIB.A 3.2%, SHOP 2.57%, PHO 2.56%,MU 3.27%, NVDA 3.22%, KXS 2.21%.

Q: Could I suggest questioners avoid (or explain) unusual acronyms if possible? When I read the recent question about CSU I thought it odd that the chief operating officer would suffer from Anti Social Personality Disorder!!
Thanks for your very valuable advice.
Chris
PS It took me a while to discover that ASPD really stands for Automatic Share Purchase and Disposition agreement.